SMT Prototype Board Compendium Many chips are only available in surface mount (SMT) packages and they are getting ever smaller as the drive towards miniaturization continues.  This makes it tough to experiment with the parts on a bread board.  Fortunately, they are a variety of adapter boards that make experimenting with these devices easier.  One of the challenges is finding a suitable board when you find a chip you want to use...

[EDIT 08/06/2012 : Pachube has now changed its name to Cosm, but the Pachube API's listed here still work as is.] Following on from my previous article here, we have a simple HTTP client for Swordfish. But what use can we make of it, besides browsing the source code of our favourite webpages?Pachube (pronounced “Patch-Bay”) is an online database service which allows users and developers to upload and download data from their own “Feeds”,...

I've been wanted to try a couple things with laser-cut acrylics.  For a long while, I've wanted to try bolted 90° joins, often seen at Thingiverse.  I started with information I found in How To: Make Cheap LaserCut Custom Boxes for Your DIY Electronics.  I wouldn't quite make the patterns shown in the article work with Visio, so I created my own.  My patterns are slightly different, in that I made the slot width the same as the...

I recently found a great old Westinghouse AC Ammeter at Goodwill for a few bucks.  I love the look of these old meters but this one had a cracked lens and a 50 year accumulation of cigarette smoke and grim on the case.  I didn't take ant "before" pictures but here's how it looks cleaned up, minus a lens. The meter face was almost brown from the accumulation of grime and cigarette smoke.  I took the front cover off the meter and scrubbed...

Since I first saw Mikal Harts Reverse Geocache Puzzle I knew I needed to build one. My best mate and his wife are avid GeoCachers (is that a word?) and I decided to make a special gift for his 30th birthday. Well, I missed that particular deadline, but never mind, better late than never eh buddy!? Having seen lots of other people try their hand at it in their own unique interpretations I had a few ideas of my own in mind. At the top of the list I...

In my article on the Irradiance Meter, I showed a picture of my friend Orris's solar panel set up for evaluation.  I recently had a chance to visit and see the progress on this project.  It's most impressive!  Orris has been busy.  Although not a exactly a microcontroller project, I think you'll enjoy seeing what a DIY-er can do on a large scale. The array consists of 24 panels of 4' x 4' with a potential output of about 4 kW. ...

Why should coffee tables be limited to magazines and cups of coffee? All that precious space could be used for something far more exciting, like video games! This DIY project allows up to four players to battle it out in a game of Pong. And it's named accordingly, "The Super Pong Table". The Game There is an Atari paddle controller for each player to move their respective 'bat' to the left or right. With five balls to start with, each...

(Republished from another web site by permission of the author - me) A variable voltage power supply is an asset to any bench.  Even if a commercial lab supply is available, another power supply is always useful to operate those things that require an odd voltage or to check performance under different voltages.  When combined with the Power Monitor, this ten buck power supply will keep up with most lab-type power supplies.  

I thought Jon Chandler’s Clock for Geeks was a great project and his idea to make a clock with two dials in a VU meter type setup was brilliant.  This is my take on that idea.

Here is my first PCB project I made using Diptrace, I wanted to make a board that gave me access to all the data pins and to use a LCD display for prototyping. So I designed a schematic using Diptrace and then created my own PCB layout and made it onto some copper clad. I decided to use a 40pin microcontroller, 20mhz crystal, 8 leds and 8 buttons, LCD display which can be detached from the board, and many strip pins to give me access to...

Want to bring your romantic candle lit dinners into the 21st century? Well you can now with this super simple LED candle hack! All you need are a couple of tea light candles, some LEDs and a few button batteries. Watch the following video for more info!

I recently had use for the simple signal generator. I described before for testing out some piezo buzzers I got for next to nothing.  I reloaded the code onto a TAP-28 board I had handy, made the connections and was quickly rewarded with some noise.     Since I find this really useful to have around, I decided to dedicate a TAP-28 board to the task and mounted it in an enclosure.  The the same time, I wrote a simple Windows (sorry Linux...

What's not to like about the idea? A GPS module is the perfect companion to the humble clock and ensures the time is always accurate and never needs adjusting (unless you live in an area that has daylight savings). Better still, the GPS module does not require a "lock" to multiple satellites - just one or more. "I want to build one!" I hear you say - well read on...

A friend of mine is evaluating solar panel technology for a large-scale home project.  An irradiance meter is a handy tool to help evaluate various options.  This irradiance meter is a fusion of pieces that came together to make a simple solution possible. A Handspring Visor PDA provides a slick user interface and logging capability.

The PIC Tetris game (PICtris) spawned from a recent question by RetroBrad in the forum. He wanted to know how to manipulate LEDs and draw 2D graphics. I'm more of a practical kind of guy and in the past, graphics were never an area of concern. I was intrigued to delve into the world of 2D to find out how things tick. The 64 LEDs and four buttons are controlled by a single PIC (18LF4520) and two AA batteries. The source code operates very efficiently,...

The purpose of the project was to create a 'box' that could control 12-24 timers independently. Each timer required both visual and audible ques. It was a quick-and-easy fun project that threw some curve balls when it came to writing a program that could control 24 timers which could have different states at any point of time. With a PIC microcontroller at the core, there was plenty of room for 24 timers. Once again, I've used potentiometers for...

Credit where credit is due, this project was inspired by Jon Chandler's Clock for Geeks. After reading through one of Jon Chandlers recent projects, I was rather inspired to make my own! The Geek Clock is a great spin on a more then well known concept - displaying time. His method employs a Servo, PIC and a little intuition.

This is my first daughter board for the low cost TAP-28 Development Boardmade by Jon Chandler. It's future purpose is to be used in my own variant of the Servo Clock (also made by Jon!). Why use the TAP-28 if I had to physically make my own board anyway? Because the TAP-28 has 90% of the gear required to get any small project online and running.

The first servo clock was built using a name-brand servo known for its linearity.  The second iteration was built using a low-cost mini-servo.  Its linearity was not as good; uncorrected, the time readout was not acceptable. In the ideal case, locating the delay value at the starting and ending points would be enough for the clock to read properly across the range.  The angle of rotation would vary linearly across the scale. ...

Overview To ensure my Dedicated Servo Controller worked and was stable, I made a Servo "Ranger" program. It's a dual purpose design (discussed later) that allows the user to control 8 servos via two potentiometers. One potentiometer selects the servo, and the other sets the position. While there are 8 servos to choose from, there is a 9th mode which displays both the total number of packets sent and the total number of errors that have occurred....

Another quick and easy project, this time focused toward a simple robot that rocks a tank full of PCB etchant. Anyone that fabricates their own Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's) at home will either have a commercial etching tank, or manually rock their etchant solution until the process is complete. Given the price of commercial models are anywhere between $70 and $150, I thought some DIY was in order here. For less than $20 in parts you can make...

After a recent article from Jon Chandler, I thought it best to share my recent work on the Sure Electronics 915Mhz Wireless Transceivers. Here's what one looks like from the box; It's very important to note here that they come in a pair. That means 2xTransceivers and 2xOmni Antenna. At the time of purchase/writing this article, the modules cost US$17.72 a pair. The datasheet can be downloaded here: GP-GC011

My most recently completed project is a remote temperature and humidity sensor which wirelessly sends the readings to a base station to display and log the data. For the base station I used an old iPaq Pocket PC which was past its useful life.  The remote sensor is controlled by a PIC18F1220.

Download the Swordfish program and Gerber files here: Dedicated Servo Controller Source Files This project offers a dedicated solution to control servo motors, which can be controlled via USART data packets. This approach has it advantages, though Andy has made an excellent feature enriched Servo Library which can be used in pretty much any program. Servo Motor's are one of the many hobby electronic marvels that make life a lot easier when working...

I've recently had a few applications where a wireless link would be handy. Looking on eBay, I found that Sure makes a 2.4 GHz UART module for a decent price (US$14 each on eBay including shipping).  These are designed as a cable replacement, with a claimed range of 10 meters. 

TAP-28 Introduction Microprocessor applications often require only a simple microprocessor circuit to control an external board, read a few sensors, control a motor or LED using PWM or even run a servo. Implementation of such a circuit is a hassle: dedicating a complex dev board to the task, maybe using a solderless breadboard or hand-assembling the circuit on perf board. None of these is an ideal solution, costing more than needed, having a less-than-robust...

OK, so this project might not be a killer robot or auto-guided missile, though for what ever reason it has turned out to be a decently sized program! The scenario that brought this project to life would most likely be quite unique and rarely encountered, though I thought it would still be worth sharing as the program has a few handy little features and nifty tricks.

LED Boards I recently brought a few components from Sure Electronics which included aluminium based LED boards. They caught my eye given the cheap price, US$2.04 (at the time of writing this article) and come completely assembled ready to be connected to 12-13.8V. Here's what they look like;  

[Note: a more rigorous calibration approach for dealing with non-linear servos can be found here.] Clocks abound with all kinds of off-beat styles.  Here's a clock that appeals to geeks (and also works well for stealth clock watching) .

Note: Please ensure you are using the latest version of SDFileSystem.bas (at time of writing: 4.1.4). If you are updating (or do not have the library), then ensure to remove the old "C:\ProgramData\Mecanique\Swordfish\Library\SDMMC" files (if you haven't already).

A work colleague was about 90% of the way through building his own F16 flight sim cockpit, and from what I saw, the whole project was built from the ground up with the highest of care and attention to detail. From the individual control panels to the different displays and other physical aspects. Better yet, it was all DIY. Everything was a near replica of that in real life, and his final hurdle was to design/build something to interface with a High...